Janet Jackson in Canadian Hospital

[August1991]

Janet Jackson was checked into the Royal Victoria Hospital on Monday night after cancelling her show at the Bell Centre.

"All I can tell you is she was at the Royal Vic (Monday) evening," said Rebecca Burns, the hospital's media relations representative. "After two hours, she was discharged."

Burns could not reveal what Jackson was treated for, because of "patient confidentiality," but an anonymous source informed The Gazette that Jackson was treated for exhaustion.

Montreal Gazette

Two hours?

How much of that time was spent sitting in the emergency room waiting for a doctor to examine her?

Does this mean that the Royal Victoria, owned and operated by the government, will treat paying customers differently from non-paying customers? Or is it because she was a foreigner?

Curious minds want to know.

Edited October 1, 2008 by August1991

[Smallc]

Montreal Gazette

Two hours?

How much of that time was spent sitting in the emergency room waiting for a doctor to examine her?

Does this mean that the Royal Victoria, owned and operated by the government, will treat paying customers differently from non-paying customers? Or is it because she was a foreigner?

Curious minds want to know.

Not everyone waits long periods in every part of the country. I went to emergency yesterday and was seen in 15 minutes.

[August1991]

Not everyone waits long periods in every part of the country. I went to emergency yesterday and was seen in 15 minutes.

Randomly found, recent news report:

The story that a man died after waiting 34 hours in a Winnipeg emergency room for treatment has garnered a lot of attention on CTV.ca.

Many readers have written in with their own emergency room horror stories. Here is just one of them.

CTV 24 Sep 2008

But if you don't liek anecdotal evidence, Quebec taxpayers paid for a study that came to this conclusion:

Quebec's emergency rooms are bursting at the seams, especially in Montreal and the Outaouais, despite some $60 million spent last year by the Liberal government to relieve pressure on hospitals' front lines, according to an annual report on health care.

For the second year in a row, Montreal newspaper La Presse rated admission times at Quebec hospitals and found the average time to be admitted to hospital through an emergency room is 16 hours and 18 minutes, about 30 minutes longer than two years ago.

CBC

Janet Jackson certainly didn't wait 16 hours before being examined. She was in and out in two hours. And simple logic implies that she took the place of someone else who had been waiting in the Royal Victoria hospital.

----

I think my point is that there is a tremendous amount of confused thinking in debates about Canada's health care system. Different people receive different treatment and this won't change. Rather than try to pretend otherwise, we should accept facts as they are and design the system in consequence.

[bush_cheney2004]

....I think my point is that there is a tremendous amount of confused thinking in debates about Canada's health care system. Different people receive different treatment and this won't change. Rather than try to pretend otherwise, we should accept facts as they are and design the system in consequence.

Uh-oh.....mustn't expose the truth about n-tier health care in Canada.....my cat gets faster service!

I have come to the conclusion that suffering on line must be a virtue and civic duty, except for those in Canada who can avoid it.

[guyser]

So janet got seen and discharged in 2 hours. So what.

I was seen,had an analysis done, treated, medicated and disharged in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Anecdotal for sure but wait times for me have been pretty damn short. My Cancer treatment , from diagnosis to Surgeon appt, one day.

Double by pass for my father from diagnosis to operation, 3 days and he was sent to St Mikes, the hospital that all the American Dr's get sent.(Excellent teaching hospital) He returned to hospital via ambulance for various other ailments due to his declining health and never waited more than 15 minutes.

Glaucoma operation for my mom. the horrors of her being booked 3 weeks later.She can see well enough so that wait is of no concern .

It is called triage. Only an idiot (and those are the ones we read about) would expect to get treatment for a minor cut ahead of a major trauma incident.

[jdobbin]

Randomly found, recent news report.

The Winnipeg story is about a man who never reported to the triage nurse and was a regular who often slept at the hospital because he had no where else to go. He died some time during his time in the waiting room. He wasn't exactly waiting to be seen. He made no effort to be seen.

I have no idea about the situation in Quebec and the full day waits there. I do know that there have been various reports of problems in ERs across North America and wait times though. In Canada, it is lack of doctors. I don't know why there are problems in the U.S.

Edited October 1, 2008 by jdobbin

[blueblood]

The Winnipeg story is about a man who never reported to the triage nurse and was a regular who often slept at the hospital because he had no where else to go. He died some time during his time in the waiting room. He wasn't exactly waiting to be seen. He made no effort to be seen.

I have no idea about the situation in Quebec and the full day waits there. I do know that there have been various reports of problems in ERs across North America and wait times though. In Canada, it is lack of doctors. I don't know why there are problems in the U.S.

34 hours to be in a waiting room though, you'd think someone would have went and tried to toss him after 12.

[jdobbin]

34 hours to be in a waiting room though, you'd think someone would have went and tried to toss him after 12.

In the HSC waiting room it is not uncommon for people to sleep there for lengthy periods. Staff have had difficult times discharging people or getting them to leave when they have no where to go. Siloam Mission doesn't take people in during the day. If you are too late at night, you don't get a room.

Staff at the hospital routinely cared for this man even when his medical condition didn't warrant emergency care.